The Ablation of Ice by a Water Jet

Abstract

A jet of warm water when directed against a solid ice surface will rapidly form a cylindrical cavity in the ice. For the low pressure (~ 100 psi) jets used in this experiment, this cavity formation, or ablation, can be attributed to melting produced by the transfer of sensible heat from the water to the ice interface. The rates of ablation when expressed in terms of Nusselt numbers were found to correlate with the appropriate jet Reynolds numbers over a considerable range in water temperatures, jet diameters and water velocities. The correlations obtained were typical of convective heat transfer in a highly turbulent flow. This would account for some of the high heat transfer rates that were observed and may be of some practical implication for the use of low pressure water jets in the cutting or drilling of ice.